29/03/2019
NEWS STORY
Having revealed in February that it was seeking to standardise the gearbox cassette, following the subsequent meeting of the World Motor Sport Council earlier this month, just 22 words were devoted to F1.
Those 22 words however, as we reported at the time, were likely to send a shudder through the sport and its fans.
"The Council approved the launch of a series of tenders within the context of the ongoing development of the 2021 Technical Regulations," they read.
Today it has been revealed that in its determination to reduce spending, which it aims to do partly by introducing a budget cap, the sport is also seeking to standardise more parts and thereby curb unnecessary spending.
In particular, the sport is seeking to reduce spending on those parts the fans don't see and which are considered to be unimportant to fans, those components in which fans have no interest in who manufactures them.
At this week's meeting of the Strategy Group the teams were given a list of components that the sport is seeking to standardise, and according to Auto Motor und Sport, they include the following:
Calipers, brake discs, brake pads, steering column, rims, halo, crash structures (laterally and behind), axles, nuts, driveshaft, brake and accelerator pedals, DRS mechanism, the innards of the fuel tank such as pumps and pit stop equipment: Including jack, gallows and impact wrench.
According to Auto Motor und Sport the savings are estimated at 300,000 euros (£258k / $336k) a year, and while most of these components will indeed make no difference to most fans, it remains to be seen how the drivers react to a standard steering wheel.
Check out our Friday gallery from Sakhir, here.